President's address, delivered by Tim Morrison at the Owairaka Athletics AGM, 9 April 2024
It always seems easy to start with summer junior program as it’s fresh of mind. We had another pickup on numbers this year on last year’s strong registrations. The feeling this year was that we hit the summer season running, versus last season when we came out of COVID and a spike in registrations, which took a while to adjust to. It’s always great to see the development year on year of the kids, but also the confidence that has grown in the coaching groups and I’d like to call out Selena and Winona and Kaitlyn here.
We have had increased junior representation numbers in Cross Country, McKinnon Shield and Colgate Games - it's great to see the kids participate at these levels and enjoyment the kids get out of competing.
We also provided some scholarships, including to Wesley Intermediate students, and it was great to see those kids here at the club and progressing well.
Our travel grant was also accessed by one of our outstanding athletes to assist with costs to compete overseas.
The club has developed now what marketers describe as “Tribes”, we have the Jumpers, the Sprinters, the Throwers, Middle Distance Runners, the Ultra Runners and the Masters (my Tribe), and we are having many types of success across all of these disciplines.
How this has evolved is interesting as we are originally quite a famous Harriers club! But the committee remains mindful that we want to be agile and adapt to the needs of the community we represent. Hopefully, with the support of the community and our volunteers and parents, we can continue to do that. The community and the Brunton family rallying around to get the high jump mat speak to that as well as the coaching efforts. Clubs need to adapt to grow and continue to remain relevant, not just our club. I believe there is a mindset at our club for this to happen in a positive way.
Nick will provide a summary of the club results. There have been many outstanding results across the board - from Juniors events, Masters, Ultras and 24 hours.
The club financials are in very good health, thank you Peter Kenny for your work on this. With the ratification of the club constitution and clarification of our tax status we are in a much stronger position in regard to external funding applications which will benefit the club and individuals. I thank Pete and Ollie for their work here and on the Club Code of Conduct.
We have had some issues this year with the track needing some remedial work, we have a good liaison person at Auckland Council who is aware of the track issues and a plan to address, also someone has been accessing the equipment room to use the sprinting blocks which has been a great source of frustration, hopefully this is now resolved with Pete’s handy work.
Many thanks again to the committee and the volunteers without which the club can’t function. Special thanks to Kate for the many things she does for the club.
If you think you can assist the club we want to hear from you, we have some great people and parents here, many with athletic backgrounds and other talents we are discovering. Get involved, it’s a great fun community to be part of.
Kommentare